Not really new, but I originally wrote a long-ish post on Chernobyl, only to delete it a few minutes later and substitute it with a few words and photos. My memory of the event has gotten hazy after less than a year, and I figured I would re-post it before it was lost forever.

Original blog post with videos, photos and summary: http://www.fredandjulia.com/2011/04/chernobyl-most-romantic-honeymoon-spot.html

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(originally posted in April, 2011, and deleted by myself minutes later - my apologies for the unedited typos)

Well, huh, where to even start this one?

Get ready for a lot of photos (not typical Fred-style, I know), some videos from Youtube that are close to 20 minutes long (and repetitive for the average viewer).
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We changed our minds about where to go on an almost daily basis while in Europe. We originally drew out a route on a map that we thought would hit everywhere we wanted to see while also getting us to Italy without having to backtrack.

It all goes to show that the best planned trip can't compete with the flexibility of making last minute changes.
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Until Julia's short post on Budapest last week, there had been a long dry spell in our blogging. When we hit Budapest and spent our week there, we entered some sort of 'this is coming to an end' personality change. There wasn't any sadness or daily crying fits, but we automatically and subconsciously started to transition ourselves back into our life in Chicago.

We saw a lot of Budapest and we loved a lot of Budapest.

We're back in Chicago by now and it's somewhat hard to get the motivation to remember what we did two weeks ago in a land far, far way. However, we spent an entire week in Budapest and really enjoyed the city, so here's a few interesting facts that we learned:

1.  Hungarian is a super hard language to learn.  We were told that the closest related language to Hungarian is Finnish, however, we're also told by a Hungarian that he doesn't understand a word of Finnish.
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Budapest wasn't always the ending point of our trip (the trip before the Italy wedding, that is, which is when we become 'real' vacationers even though we aren't ditching the backpacks). We originally planned a few days here which is what most travelers recommend. Then again, most travelers do 2-3 days everywhere they go just to fit enough in.

Before setting out to Europe we had no idea where we would end.

Beaches and sunshine make me smile which means Croatia made me smile A LOT. I think that it's the most beautiful country I've visited. Fred complains that the beaches are not so great because they're all rocky, but the clear, turquoise water and steep cliffs that line the shore put me in awe. I literally could not sleep on buses (I always fall asleep on buses) because I could not stop starring at the scenery. We've been in Croatia for about 10 days, yet this is the first detailed post about it.
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We ended up in Montenegro. Somehow. I keep looking (I mean, thinking) about our original plan and a hand-drawn map of our travel route. How different it is.

I feel like I cannot really say that I have been to Montenegro since we only visited one of the most touristy parts of the country - Kotor Bay. I had never heard of it before hearing about it from a chef from California staying at our hostel in VT, Bulgaria, but he told us it was a must-see.

Really, how much do you know about Yugoslavia - other than it being a country you had to memorize for geography class (and even then it was easy because it was one big lump of land like the USSR was). I gotta say, being here has opened my eyes up to the headlines you read about in newspapers. When Julia last spoke to her grandfather, he said that all wars start here in the Balkans, and now that seems to make a little more sense.

Sorry we've been gone for so long, but a combination of slow internet and not much to write about kept us away from the blogging.  So, let's get down to the city summaries.

Sofia

This is the capital of Bulgaria.  After being swept away by charming little cities and stunning scenery, we were prepared for what other travellers have called just "another big city".  We felt it was just that.  We saw some churches and walked around city center.
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